OU postgame thoughts

AUSTIN — Even if Rick Barnes wants nothing to do with this conversation, it’s a pretty safe bet Texas secured its 11th consecutive trip to the NCAA tournament by beating Oklahoma on Saturday night.

A loss to the Sooners — especially with OU playing the second half without star forward Blake Griffin — would have made what already was a desperate situation even worse for the Longhorns. They would have needed to win at Oklahoma State or at Kansas, and maybe both. Now, just winning the games in which they’ll be big favorites — home dates against Texas Tech and Baylor — should be more than enough.

Gary Johnson’s ankle injury is a source of concern — after the game, Damion James said, “It’s pretty bad” — but there were plenty of good signs for the Longhorns, too. A.J. Abrams’ late scoring outburst was the most obvious one, but Barnes also has to be encouraged by the continued improvement of point guard Dogus Balbay, who has given UT an up-tempo dimension it lacked before.

Is this a team that will play deep into March? Unless the Longhorns can get consistent shooting from someone other than Abrams, probably not. But at least they now can take some comfort in the knowledge that they’ll almost certainly get an NCAA tournament chance to prove doubters wrong.